Saturday, October 4, 2008

So....You want to get a puppy.


I want to preface this by saying that I am not anti-breeding, but with breeding comes responsibility. Too often that is not what we see. Here is an all too familiar story of where those puppies come from that are advertised in the newspaper:

This is Cally. She was 5 years old and had at least 5 litters of puppies. I would guess she helped her owner earn some extra cash in the process. Were they advertised "home raised" ? Did she ever get to leave the yard before she outlived her usefulness and ended up at shelter along with her mate who was so badly infected he could barely walk? Did she ever play or go for walks? Did she have any toys or get to at least romp in the yard? Her demeanor told us the answer to all of those questions was NO. Many people tried to work with her and gently expose her to new things. She made progress but every new experience caused her stress. She was depressed in the kennel and would barely eat unless someone hand fed her. We took her for walks and tried to get her to see new people as a happy experience. One young man looked at her for the longest time. When we asked him what he saw his answer was: "sadness... all I see is a very sad soul" Who would adopt her? Where are we going to find a home for a frightened pit bull with saggy boobs who had never got to experience life? How long would she linger in a kennel until she slowly gave up? In the end the decision had to be made. She got to spend her last minutes on the couch with the people she had learned to trust who loved her dearly. There was no pain, no fear just incredible sadness as she silently went to sleep.
Run free sweet Cally.

8 comments:

  1. Sad story indeed....unfortunately people who breed like this see the dogs as a commodity...they have DeCartes belief that "animals are machines" and can be treated as such. until this belief changes, people will tether dogs in isolation only to breed them for money....

    kevin

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  2. Oh I'm just heartbroken. I too, am not against breeding or harbor any resentment toward responsible breeders....but there are far too many IRresponsible breeders out there that are inflicting generations of pain.

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  3. Also breeders that lack the right info.
    And as above we need to educate kids on humanities at a young age.

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  4. This hurts my heart and soul so
    much. The people who had this darling girl are the "beasts", not her. I'm just glad that her last moments were one of peace and love, not fear, pain, and loneliness. A BIG thank you to those at the humane society who tried so hard to mend her sad soul. You are truly a blessing to dogs like Cally.

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  5. My name is Cynthia and this story is a sad one and one I see at the shelter I volunteer at in LA way too much. I really believe that our biggest problem with the pit bulls is back yard breeding. Just today at the LA shelter the entire first row of pit bulls ( most likely will be euthanized ) were blue PBT....oh yea " the rare blues ". I walked through that row and said out loud A Holes! I could go on.. I agree that teaching the young is very important.I will stop here.

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  6. A very sad story indeed, but so worth telling. Thank you Mary for taking the time to make this known, the hope is it will affect even one person to think and act differently in their support of such hideous acitons.

    Mike

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  7. Oh Cally! I am sorry for the hurt & neglect that you experienced in your short life here on this earth. Your eyes tell your sad story. You will be remembered as a lesson to me & hopefully others that we must help those beings who are less fortunate than ourselves, and become activly involved in looking after the rights of those who cannot speak for themselves! As the saying goes, "Freedom is not Free," well Justice must be won, as well!

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  8. The saddest darn story, I've seen. You can see it in her eyes....my heart goes out to each of those kind individuals involved.

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